docs(web): ground the name in the suiko rice-seed loan, Plantare as its inverse

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vjrj 2026-07-15 07:47:26 +02:00
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@ -56,16 +56,19 @@ put away. For all ages, from 10 to 80.
## A Japanese name
**Tane** means "seed" (種); *tanemaki* (種まき) means "to sow seeds". And it's no accident
that the name is Japanese. In much of rural Japan, farming life rested on mutual aid —
*yui* (結): neighbours lent one another their labour, and their seed and rice too. Whoever
received grain or seed in a hard year gave it back after the harvest — a little of the
much that seed had multiplied. That way the common stock never ran dry: every loan, once
grown, gave back more than it took.
that the name is Japanese. In early Japan (8th10th centuries) there was the *suiko* (出挙):
rice from the granaries was lent out as seed in spring and returned in autumn, after the
harvest. It began as relief — giving grain to those who had none to sow — but it was repaid
with interest (from half as much again up to double the loan), and over time it hardened
into an obligation that left peasants in debt harvest after harvest. The same sack of rice
was at once seed, food and debt.
That very idea is the heart of Tane. When you share seeds you can attach a **Plantare**: a
promise to return, when you can, a similar amount of free seed. It isn't a debt — it's a
pledge to keep the seed alive and moving. And because returning it means growing it, and
growing multiplies it, every loan makes the commons grow instead of shrinking it.
Tane keeps that age-old gesture — lending seed and giving it back after the harvest — but
takes out the trap. When you share seeds you can attach a **Plantare**: a promise to
return, when you can, a similar amount of free seed. It is not a debt and carries no
interest: it is a pledge to keep the seed alive and moving. And because returning it means
growing it, and growing multiplies it, every loan makes the commons grow instead of
shrinking it.
## Where it stands and how to help